ST. LOUIS, March 5, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- Sigma-Aldrich® Corporation (NASDAQ: SIAL) today announced that SAFC® (www.safcglobal.com), its custom manufacturing and services business unit, will expand its manufacturing plant in Irvine, Scotland to include large-scale production of bulk dry power media and reagents. Designed to support the expanding needs of the European and Asia Pacific market, SAFC's Irvine facility expansion will result in redundant manufacturing capabilities in conjunction with SAFC's existing dry powder media facility in Lenexa, KS.

The addition of the dry powder milling and blending capability to the Irvine facility will complete the 5-year Capital Expansion Plan SAFC initiated as part of its long-term commitment to supporting customers in the growing industrial biopharmaceutical market. SAFC will construct a purpose-built Animal Component Free (ACF) dry powder media manufacturing facility to complement the existing liquid cell culture media, buffers, and reagents capabilities in Irvine. Ground breaking for the new facility is expected to commence in March 2013 and should be manufacturing-ready in Q1 of 2014. Once complete, the facility will be one of the most modern and fit-for-purpose media facilities in the industry.

"Accelerated development schedules have proven to be a critical component of success for our customers. They need a guarantee that the suppliers they work with are in a position to respond rapidly to their unique project requirements," stated Rod Kelley, SAFC Vice President of Manufacturing. "We've applied our know-how and experience, best practices, and current technology to the facility design and approach with the goal to deliver a high-quality product in a manner that supports the efforts of our customers."

The facility expansion will also include additional raw material and finished goods warehousing as part of the new manufacturing capability. As with the current Irvine manufacturing and warehouse facilities, the new expansion will also be fully compliant with appropriate US FDA and EU cGMP requirements and comply with local requirements with regard to safety and environmental regulations.

"We remain committed to investing in areas where we can deliver tangible value for our global customer base," stated Gilles Cottier, President of SAFC. "These investments and subsequent customer benefits continue to set SAFC apart as a supplier of choice in the industry. We are grateful to Scotland's First Minister, Alex Salmond, and Scottish Enterprise for their support with this expansion in Scotland."

To learn more about SAFC's investment in Scotland, please click here. To learn more about SAFC's dry powder capabilities, please click here.

The foregoing release contains forward-looking statements that can be identified by terminology such as "will result," "should" or similar expressions, or by expressed or implied discussions regarding potential future revenues from products derived there from. You should not place undue reliance on these statements. There can be no guarantee that the products in SAFC's service offering will continue to meet the demands of the marketplace. Nor can there be any guarantee that any of these products will achieve any particular levels of revenue in the future. Such forward-looking statements reflect the current views of management regarding future events, and involve known and unknown risks, uncertainties and other factors that may cause actual results to be materially different from any future results, performance or achievements expressed or implied by such statements. In particular, management's expectations regarding these products could be affected by, among other things, unexpected regulatory actions or delays or government regulation generally; the Company's ability to obtain or maintain patent or other proprietary intellectual property protection; competition in general; government, industry and general public pricing pressures; the impact that the foregoing factors could have on the values attributed to the Company's assets and liabilities as recorded in its consolidated balance sheet, and other risks and factors referred to in Sigma-Aldrich's current Form 10-K on file with the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Should one or more of these risks or uncertainties materialize, or should underlying assumptions prove incorrect, actual results may vary materially from those anticipated, believed, estimated or expected. Sigma-Aldrich is providing the information in this press release as of this date and does not undertake any obligation to update any forward-looking statements contained in this press release as a result of new information, future events or otherwise.

About Sigma-Aldrich:Sigma-Aldrich is a leading Life Science and High Technology company whose biochemical, organic chemical products, kits and services are used in scientific research, including genomic and proteomic research, biotechnology, pharmaceutical development, the diagnosis of disease and as key components in pharmaceutical, diagnostics and high technology SAFC manufacturing. Sigma-Aldrich customers include more than 1.3 million scientists and technologists in life science companies, university and government institutions, hospitals and industry. The Company operates in 38 countries and has nearly 9,000 employees whose objective is to provide excellent service worldwide. Sigma-Aldrich is committed to accelerating customer success through innovation and leadership in Life Science and High Technology. For more information about Sigma-Aldrich, please visit its website at www.sigma-aldrich.com.

About SAFC:SAFC, the custom manufacturing and services business unit of Sigma-Aldrich Corporation, is recognized as a top 10 global specialty chemicals and biologics supplier. As a trusted manufacturer for the life science and high technology industries, SAFC works closely with customers to resolve development challenges and accelerate the product pipeline utilizing its global "Centers of Excellence" and dedicated manufacturing facilities. Its rich portfolio includes high-purity inorganic materials for high technology applications, critical raw materials and extensive biologics safety testing services for biopharmaceutical manufacturing, and complex, high-potent APIs and key intermediates for pharmaceutical manufacturing. For more information, visit www.safcglobal.com.